Columbia Basin Bulletin - September 15, 2025

Continuation of Legal Battle Over Columbia Basin Salmon Recovery, Tribe Files Lawsuit, Sharp Salmon Decline In Yukon... and more

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Columbia Basin Bulletin
September 15, 2025

Plaintiffs in long-running court battles that since 2001 have challenged environmental impact statements and biological opinions regarding the impact of operations of Columbia and Snake river federal dams on imperiled salmon and steelhead are heading back to court, according to a filing by the groups this week in U.S. District Court in Oregon.

The Nez Perce Tribe filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court this week challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a large open-pit gold mine in the headwaters of Idaho’s South Fork Salmon River. The undammed Salmon River basin is a critical source of Idaho’s salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

For millennia, Indigenous people living in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory have relied on Chinook salmon. The large, fatty fish provide essential nutrients for Arctic living and have influenced traditions and languages across generations.

The Washington Department of Ecology issued an official rebuke of a draft report by the U.S. Department of Energy being used to justify the Trump Administration’s rollback of federal climate regulations. At the same time, Ecology also released a new analysis that details worsening local impacts now and in the future due to rising global emissions.

Measuring mountain snowpack at strategically selected hotspots consistently outperforms broader basin-wide mapping in predicting water supply in the western United States, a new study found.

Oregon may soon have a new wildlife area in Union County called the Qapqápa Wildlife Area (pronounced cop-COP-a). The property would be owned by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and co-managed with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, continuing a decades-long partnership.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District has awarded a $15 million construction contract to Syblon-Reid Co. to build a new fish ladder at the Mill Creek Diversion Dam in Walla Walla.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s recent legislatively adopted budget did not include funding to continue the operation of Salmon River Hatchery near Lincoln City, one of more than 30 hatcheries that ODFW maintains in the state.

A team of scientists has proposed additional guiding principles and performance measures -- based on the full lifecycles of salmon and steelhead -- that they believe will help with Columbia River estuary restoration.

Corps Completes 6-Year, $171 Million Rehabilitation Of South Jetty At Mouth Of Columbia River, Stabilizes Navigation Channel

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, has completed major rehabilitation to the South Jetty at the mouth of the Columbia River, marking the end of a decade-plus effort to restore the three jetties that protect one of the nation’s busiest trade corridors. Work on the $171.3 million South Jetty wrapped up in August 2025 after six construction seasons.

The Trump administration released draft plans that could strip away protections for the greater sage grouse on about 50 million acres of public lands across the West. The Obama- and Biden-era greater sage grouse proposals were intended to prevent the extinction of the iconic dancing bird.

Northern Arizona University and University of California Berkeley scientists working along the region’s California’s Eel River have discovered a micro-scale nutrient factory that keeps rivers healthy and allows salmon to thrive.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, has issued a five-year construction license to the Benton Conservation District for the Amon Creek Habitat Restoration Project, a $1.2 million initiative aimed at improving fish habitat and migration conditions at the Yakima Delta Habitat Management Unit near McNary Lock and Dam.

From corn chips to tofu, climate change is messing with the menu.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a five-year status review of the Columbian white-tailed deer and found that it has met the criteria outlined in its recovery plan. As a result, the Service is recommending the deer be removed from the federal Endangered Species List.